Journal of general internal medicine
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Pragmatic Clinical Trial
Enhancing Usability of Appointment Reminders: Qualitative Interviews of Patients Receiving Care in the Veterans Health Administration.
No-shows are a persistent and costly problem in all healthcare systems. Because forgetting is a common cause of no-shows, appointment reminders are widely used. However, qualitative research examining appointment reminders and how to improve them is lacking. ⋯ Appointment reminders are vital to prevent no-shows, but their usability is not optimized for patients. There is potential for healthcare systems to modify several aspects of the content, timing, and delivery of appointment reminders to be more effective and patient-centered.
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Implementation of evidence-based practices often requires tailoring implementation strategies to local contextual factors, including available resources, expertise, and cultural norms. Using an exemplar case, we describe how health systems engineering methods can be used to understand system-level variation that must be accounted for prior to broad implementation. ⋯ Tools from health systems engineering can be used to identify key work flow process steps, variations in how those steps are executed, and influential contextual factors. This process and the associated assessment tool may facilitate broader implementation tailoring.